Saint Augustine Phan Viết Huy

Augustine Phan Viết Huy was born in 1795 in the village of Hạ Linh, now in the parish of Liên Thủy, Diocese of Bùi Chu. As a young man he longed to become a catechist and give his whole life to the work of God’s house.

But that dream did not come true. He accepted another path: he married, and then became a soldier.

Some people carry an unfinished dream bitterly all their lives. Huy did not. He lived the path he had been given to the full: a devoted husband, a father who cared for his children, an active member of his Catholic community. Perhaps in his heart he still kept the flame of the boy who had wanted to be a catechist.

In the spring of 1839, under Emperor Minh Mạng, Catholic soldiers were ordered to step over the cross. Huy and two comrades, Nicholas Bùi Đức Thể and Đinh Văn Đạt, were afraid. They stepped over. They took the reward money.

Perhaps Huy thought of his wife and children at home. Perhaps he thought: it is only one step; in my heart I still believe. But as soon as he stepped over, he knew he had lost something precious.

He could not live in peace with it. The three soldiers talked it over, and went back together to the court of Nam Định. They brought the reward money and said:

“Your Excellency, a few days ago we foolishly denied God’s religion. Now we have come to our senses, and we ask to return the money to you, so that we may worship God sincerely.”

No one forced them to do this. They could have kept quiet, kept the money, and gone home to get on with their lives. No one would have known the torment in their hearts. But they chose to speak out, because they knew God knew.

After asking the priests’ advice, Huy and Thể went all the way to the capital, Huế. They waited for the day Emperor Minh Mạng would pass by, then knelt right in the middle of the road and presented a petition asking to be allowed to keep their faith.

Once a man afraid of the cangue, Huy now stepped forward of his own accord before the king, who held the power of life and death. He knew what would happen. But he did not want that mistake to be the last word of his life.

The king was furious and ordered their execution. On June 13, 1839, at the Thuận An estuary, Huy and Thể were cut in two at the waist, and their bodies were thrown into the sea.

At home in Hạ Linh, his wife and children never even had a grave where they could burn incense. They too had to bear the cost of that decision.

He was beatified in 1900, together with his friend Nicholas Thể, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is June 13.

Everyone has times when they have “been foolish”. Sometimes it is a lie, a time we turned our backs on someone who needed help, a time we denied what we believe for fear of ridicule. Augustine Huy teaches us that what matters is not never having been wrong, but whether we dare to come back.

The young man of long ago never became a catechist. But with his own life, he taught a catechism lesson that people still hear today: the lesson of repentance.